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Old 07-30-2009, 07:56 AM
 
12,282 posts, read 13,239,617 times
Reputation: 4985

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6 months after debut, light rail remains busy

Seems to be successful.
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Old 07-30-2009, 11:02 AM
 
Location: Prairie Village, KS
476 posts, read 1,316,337 times
Reputation: 125
Sheesh, and people talk about KC being sprawled as a reason not to get light rail - Phoenix is one of the most sprawled metros in country.

Sigh. Someday we'll get it here in KC, but we always seem to be two steps behind other cities.
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Old 07-30-2009, 11:07 AM
 
886 posts, read 2,226,437 times
Reputation: 325
I don't care anymore, I love KC but I don't plan to live here forever.... by the time light rail gets built i'll have already moved.... i hope it does happen, but it won't effect me.
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Old 07-30-2009, 03:27 PM
 
1,662 posts, read 4,503,629 times
Reputation: 539
Having spent a month in Chicago and used the transit system quite a bit, I can say for certain that I would not use it but as a last resort in KC.

I've used it in Chicago because and when it's easier than using my car. But I gotta say, it sucks. Not the system itself. That is a marvel of transportation engineering that rivals the skyscrapers of this great city in ingenuity. I mean using the system.

YUCK! Packed like sardines onto buses and trains with people begging for money, singing at the top of their lungs about Jesus, or who haven't bathed since god knows when. Give me my car any day. And so long as I can move it and park it with relative ease, you won't get me back on train.

Sorry folks. If that makes me a suburban snob, so be it.
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Old 07-30-2009, 04:37 PM
 
Location: Washington, DC area
11,108 posts, read 23,888,805 times
Reputation: 6438
You live in JoCo Samantha, Chances are that even if KC had an extensive rail system, you would never set foot in it and it would not come within 20 miles of you anyway...

By the way, we just go back from Chicago as well. Been there many times. My kids love to use transit, undertand it etc. They can enjoy the city and not get worked up over homeless people etc. Pretty amazing really. I love to drive in big cities and drove all over Chicago with no problem. But it's also great to be able to not have to drive and worry about parking. Chicago is a city you have to enjoy without a car or you may as well not go there...

skrizzle,

We are trying to leave KC as well. I love KC, but time to move on . Even if you stay in KC, towns like Omaha, Tulsa and Des Moines will have light rail long before KC does. Mark my words.
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Old 07-30-2009, 04:55 PM
 
1,662 posts, read 4,503,629 times
Reputation: 539
Quote:
Originally Posted by kcmo View Post
You live in JoCo Samantha, Chances are that even if KC had an extensive rail system, you would never set foot in it and it would not come within 20 miles of you anyway...
Which is why it won't be here any time soon.

Quote:
By the way, we just go back from Chicago as well. Been there many times. My kids love to use transit, undertand it etc. They can enjoy the city and not get worked up over homeless people etc. Pretty amazing really. I love to drive in big cities and drove all over Chicago with no problem. But it's also great to be able to not have to drive and worry about parking. Chicago is a city you have to enjoy without a car or you may as well not go there...

I have enjoyed the city tremendously, always do. With and without the car. The train was fun for the kids a few times. No one got "worked up" over anything, but thanks for that characterization.

But I would not like to HAVE to use transit on a regular basis. That would suck. That's all I'm saying. And as long as I can drive and park, that's what I much prefer to do.

My point for posting is that you have given the impression that people who don't use transit are clueless suburbanites who have no idea of its grandness. I have used transit in several cities now. Each time I am amazed at the engineering involved and the convenience for people when driving a car simply isn't practical. But each time I am also reminded that having to use it sucks.

Perhaps I am just not as worldly, sophisticated and cosmopolitan as you are. But I know what I like.
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Old 07-30-2009, 06:55 PM
 
Location: Washington, DC area
11,108 posts, read 23,888,805 times
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There are about 1000 middle class suburbanites that even know how to ride city bus in metro KC.

In most big cities, a very high percentage of people have used and do use transit. Even though you will find every walk of life on buses and trains, people that make 150k a year sitting next to homeless people. Most of the people are fine with this. It's part of living in a major city.

I have worked Downtown for 15 years and getting a person from the suburbs to step on a city bus for ten blocks rather than driving is like asking them to sell their children.

KC is not a typical big city in this regard. Not even close.
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Old 07-30-2009, 07:04 PM
 
Location: here.
1,359 posts, read 2,291,973 times
Reputation: 438
Arizona? why not look 3hours to the East, Metro Link is getting used by 65,000 people per day in St.Louis
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Old 07-30-2009, 07:40 PM
 
1,662 posts, read 4,503,629 times
Reputation: 539
Quote:
Originally Posted by kcmo View Post
There are about 1000 middle class suburbanites that even know how to ride city bus in metro KC.
And why is this? Because it's very easy to drive and to park pretty much anywhere in the KC Metro area.

Quote:
In most big cities, a very high percentage of people have used and do use transit. Even though you will find every walk of life on buses and trains, people that make 150k a year sitting next to homeless people. Most of the people are fine with this. It's part of living in a major city.
Define "fine with this". Because most of the professionals that I know in major cities who use transit do so only because driving to work is not cost effective. It takes too long to fight the traffic and it costs a small fortune to park. When I have hosted these professionals in KC, without exception they have envied my commute. (speaking in the past tense, I don't commute to downtown anymore.)

Quote:
I have worked Downtown for 15 years and getting a person from the suburbs to step on a city bus for ten blocks rather than driving is like asking them to sell their children.
See above. You assume this means we don't know how to use them, or that we are somehow afraid of or intimidated by them.

It means no such thing. It means we know riding the bus sucks. (This is not at all meant as a slight against people who do ride the bus. The buses in KC provide a valuable service at a low cost, and if that works for you, then that's great. But even those who use buses on a regular basis will agree with me and most would prefer to be driving.)

Quote:
KC is not a typical big city in this regard. Not even close.
And thank god for that!
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Old 07-30-2009, 08:16 PM
 
Location: Washington, DC area
11,108 posts, read 23,888,805 times
Reputation: 6438
What I'm saying is that people in KC would rather go get their car out of the garage, drive ten blocks, find another place to park, ***** that parking sucks etc, then walk outside the office building and catch the next bus or walk ten urban blocks. It's one reason the sidewaks of KC are dead in the middle of the day during the business week.

Buses don't suck that bad. I think jacking around with a car for no reason sucks much more.

But as you always say, to each their own?
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